Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net By E. F. BENSON. An Act in a Backwater. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. Scarlet and Hyssop. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. The Luck of the Vails. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. Mammon and Co. 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. Dodo. _A Detail of the Day._ 12mo. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. The Rubicon. 12mo. Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK. An Act in a Backwater _By_ E. F. BENSON _Author of “Dodo,” “Scarlet and Hyssop,” etc._ [Illustration: colophon] NEW YORK D. APPLETON AND COMPANY MCMIII COPYRIGHT, 1903, BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY _Published November, 1903_ AN ACT IN A BACKWATER CHAPTER I It was approaching half-past five on a June afternoon, and in consequence Colonel Raymond was approaching the Wroxton County Club. He was a man of method, and a retired Colonel of Volunteers, and thus he left his house (christened Lammermoor by his wife) with great regularity at a quarter past five in summer, and a quarter past four in winter, and marched rather than walked with an inflated chest and a gallant bearing. The Colonel, even at the age of fifty-six, remained one of those harmless idiots who draw themselves up and try to look interesting whenever a pretty woman passes them; indeed, he went further, for, being a little short-sighted, he drew himself up and tried to look interesting when he saw any female figure approaching, on the chance that at nearer range she might prove to be pretty. He had a somewhat flaming face, and a long mustache “silver sabled.” In very hot weather he was liable to touches of liver, and when thus afflicted, sometimes alluded, when only comparative strangers were present, to the trying climate of India, a country in which, as his intimate acquaintances knew, he had never set foot. But to the uninitiate the combination of the title of Colonel and the climate of India led to the deduction that he had seen service, and the Colonel did not put himself to the pains of correcting this. He would even encourage it further by sometimes talking of lunch as “tiffin.”